Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Neve
Hi Sarah, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always loved telling stories. I started writing in a journal when I could hardly hold a pen and I haven’t stopped since. My fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Herder, encouraged creative writing and that was when I knew I wanted to be a writer. I started competing in National Novel Writing Month when I was 16, an online competition to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. I’ve finished that project ten consecutive years now.
When I was a sophomore in college, I went on a choir tour to Europe with 40 other college students. It was a trip that changed my life. I’d been watching a lot of travel vlogs and knew I wanted to make a short montage video of this three-week trip with all my friends. I practiced filming over spring break, and knew what I wanted to do when the trip came. It was a completely new way of telling a story but I loved seeing the final product and being able to revisit the places I had such good memories. The travel bug had bitten me hard.
I kept making little montage videos of my next few trips and posting them on YouTube – just to have a place for family and friends to watch if they wanted to. After a couple years, I realized what I was doing could very easily be modified to try to make money on YouTube. I went on a trip to Amsterdam with a college roommate in 2022 and vlogged instead of just filming little clips. I worked for weeks to edit this longer-form video in a completely new style, and it is still one of my most popular videos today.
Travel (and sharing my travels on YouTube) has become a massive part of my life. I went on my first big solo trip to Bali where I volunteered at a sea turtle conservation for three weeks. In 2023, I went on the spring voyage of Semester at Sea – a study abroad experience where I lived on a ship with 500 other college students, took a full semester course-load, and visited 10 countries in four months. It was an adventure that changed the way I view the world and how I want to live my life. I also took a travel writing course while on the ship and realized my love of writing expanded to non-fiction. I backpacked Europe for a month with one of my best friends from Semester at Sea. I’m an ambassador for EF Ultimate Break, a group travel company, and have gone on several trips with them. I’ve even roadtripped to all 50 states in the US. I’ve been to 45 countries and five continents so far and I am always looking for new ways to explore the world. In 2025, I am hoping to cross off the other two continents I’m missing – Australia and Antarctica.
Through sharing my travels and experiences, I’ve been able to be monetized on YouTube, where I am continually growing my audience. I am hoping to fully fund my life through this unique job, but writing is always on my mind. Being a published author is a dream I’ve had since I was ten years old, and while I’ve had a selection of poems published in various magazines, seeing my book on a shelf never seems to fade. I am lucky and grateful that I get paid to be creative and share my stories on YouTube, and one day I’ll get paid to write.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
About eight months after my choir trip to Europe where I realized how much I wanted to travel, Covid started. It was pretty disappointing to realize all the travel I’d been planning would have to be put off. I had to delay Semester at Sea for another year – I was already going as a post-grad student, but now I would be another whole year older than everyone else.
Trying to regularly upload videos while on Semester at Sea proved to be much harder than I thought it would be. Wi-Fi on the ship was extremely limited and very poor, so I had to rely on hotels or coffee shops while in port to upload. Considering how important regular consistency is to do well on YouTube, my views were not increasing as much as I thought they would. I thought I would’ve been monetized by the time I came home from Semester at Sea – my first few vlogs did incredibly well. It seemed it wouldn’t take more than a few months to get the requirements to be paid by YouTube. But my stats didn’t improve as rapidly as they previously had. It took me a full year of regularly uploading to finally be monetized on YouTube.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I work and earn money in a wide variety of ways. The most creative one is YouTube. I am known for travel and lifestyle vlogs, sharing my experiences exploring the world both solo and with friends or family. This year I’ve also delved into more “regular life” vlogs, living in Minnesota, and more recently, a “Moving Series,” in which I’ve been showing all the different parts to moving out for the first time and moving into an apartment alone.
I’ve been a high school dive coach for eight years. I started coaching when I was a freshman in college and only a few months older than some of the athletes. It is a passion of mine to coach athletes in a way I wish I was coached when I was younger. I was just voted the Class A Dive Coach of the Year for the second year in a row.
I sell friendship bracelets on Etsy that I make myself. It allows me another method to be creative with my hands without having a stockpile of unused bracelets.
I had a full-time job at a high school for about a year after college. I quickly realized this kind of monotonous, strict working schedule was not for me. I felt like I was drowning and never had time to breathe or be myself. I have made every effort since to create work that, while unconventional, I enjoy and allows for the travel-based lifestyle I want to live.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My favorite childhood memory is not necessarily one single memory, but rather a collection of similar events. Growing up around Lake Minnetonka meant that every summer my family would go tubing as much as possible. I have three younger brothers, so we would put two people on each tube so we could all go at the same time. Over the years, we’ve developed a rather dangerous and trick-based way of tubing that usually ends up with someone getting bruised, but it is collectively one of our favorite things to do. I still remember my dad teaching me to tube when I was two years old, wrapping his arm around me so I wouldn’t fall off.
Pricing:
- Etsy friendship bracelets start at $7.75 depending on what style you get!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/sarahneve
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahjneve/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@sarahjneve?si=qAhk0cyawxpB75rj
